Indians have clocked 5.5 billion hours on TikTok in 2019

Indians clocked 5.5 billion hours on TikTok, a mobile application that is used to create 15-second short videos. TikTok outpaced the growth of rival Facebook in the battleground market for global user domination.

According to data of Android users and data analytics firm App Annie, the year 2019 has marked an increase of over 6 times from 900 million hours spent in 2018.

TikTok (owned by the most valued start-up ByteDance) at $75 billion is still behind the global rival Facebook when it comes to users and time spent. TikTok launched 28 months ago in September 2017 is catching up fast compared to Facebook, launched in September 2006.

TikTok witnessed the increase in monthly active users (MAUs) by 90% to 81 million as of December 2019, as India became the prominent market outside the home base China.

Simultaneously, Facebook witnessed an increase in total hours spent by 15% to 25.5 billion hours, while its MAUs also increased by 15% to 224 million. Whereas the Facebook-owned platform Instagram had much faster growth at 40% to 137 million as of December on Android, that is the supreme operating system with over 90% market share in India.

Lexi Sydow, senior market insight manager, App Annie stated “In December 2019, the total time spent on TikTok in India was more than the next 11 countries combined. It is not only that there are more people engaging with TikTok, but there is a deeper engagement per person.”

TikTok App was downloaded 323 million times on Apple’s App Store as well as on Android devices in the year 2019 which is twice the 156 million times Facebook was, according to Sensor Tower data.

TikTok’s ability to create fame early in life is the major reason it has attracted more users and content creators on the platform, making it a “viral loop”. “Their content format in full screen is also very engaging, as with one swipe you are on the next one, unlike other platforms where buffering takes time.

In both their video-streaming technology and the application of artificial intelligence, they have truly pushed boundaries,” stated Pratik Poddar, principal at Nexus Venture Partner.

TikTok is eyeing Rs. 100 crore in revenue for the July-September quarter, according to the report on Entrackr. TikTok is progressively looking to monetize its fast-paced user base in the country as it has hired a top management team.